Orlando shooter Omar was gay and a regular at Pulse nightclub, says former classmate

June 15, 2016 /
Pahichan Reporter

KC Archana/New Delhi – Orlando shooter Omar Mateen, who killed 50 people inside a gay nightclub early Sunday morning, was gay and a regular at Pulse nightclub, claims his ex-wife and a former classmate.

The classmate said that Mateen and his other friends would hang out together and go to gay nightclubs after classes at the Indian River Community College. He also said that one time, Mateen himself asked him out ‘romantically’.

Mateen also reportedly chatted with gay men online. One man, Kevin West, tells the Los Angeles Times he talked with Mateen over the gay dating app Jack’d on and off for about a year.

Mateen’s ex-wife Sitora Yusufiy, has described him as “bipolar,” emotionally disturbed, violent and physically abusive. In an interview with a Brazilian TV, she claimed that Mateen had ‘gay tendencies’ and also added that his father called him gay many times, reportsGawker. She sought divorce from him in 2011.

A neighbor in Mateen’s condominium complex described him as “awkward.” “With everybody in this building, if you see somebody, and you know each other, you say, ‘how are you doing?’ – small talk,” the neighbor said. “With him, it was just awkward stares.”

At least four regular customers at the Orlando gay nightclub had seen Omar Mateen there before.

Seddique Mateen, his father said that he was cool and calm just a day before the shooting. “I didn’t notice anything wrong,” he said in an interview. “He was very slick.” He said he met with his son several times a week but had no idea of his plans for violence. The family moved from New York in 1991, when Mateen was five years old. “If I was aware of it,” he said, “I would have arrested him myself in a second.”

There is not a uniform understanding among ordinary people about homosexual, transgender, inter-sex and bi-sexual people. Even the people who know about variance in this community address saying female, male and transgender. They, however, do not have proper knowledge that transgender have two categories: transgender woman and transgender man.
In this situation, it is not an easy task to inform society about their rights. Even the media and society did not have a positive attitude towards sexual and gender minority such as homosexual, transgender, inter-sex and bi-sexual people. National media had... Read more